You must be age 10 or over and you must be in good physical condition. The climb took over 3 hours; a good chunk of my day. Also wear running shoes for comfort and traction.
First me and my group, around 10 to 12 people, were herded into a small room where we had to sign our lives away and given a breathalyzer test. We were instructed to empty all pockets and to remove jewelry. We were escorted into the changing room where we put the jumpsuit on over our regular clothes. The jumpsuits zip all the way up to your neck and there’s elastic on the sleeves and legs. Finally you pass through a metal detector before you are turned over to your climb guide. Ours was Sasha, who showed us how to put our tether belt on. This belt would keep us connected to the bridge at all times.
Rain was in the forecast so we attached hats, a rain jacket and a fleece jacket to our belts. The jackets were sewn into packs, like parachutes. From here we did a practice climb on a replica of the bridge ladders. Finally we were given our military-issue headphones. Then we went to the start of the climb and tethered ourselves. Once tethered, we couldn’t change places.
First we had to walk to the southeast tower, where the ladders were that would take us up. From the tower we had to snake through some narrow passages before we approached the ladders. We had to climb 4 ladders and I told myself I wouldn’t have to do my workout today. We were now on the stop arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Walking up the arch was like walking up stairs; very gradual with hand rails on both sides. Perfectly safe. This was also our first glimpse of the city and the Sydney Opera House. Sasha began pointing out the landmarks and explaining what many of the things we saw were, not just the opera house, but the ferry terminal and several small islands (former penal colonies) in the harbor. We stopped many places along the arch so Sasha could take digital photos. We were not allowed to bring cameras, just another thing to drop on the traffic below, so Sasha took all photos. Soon we were near the top and we could see the climbing group ahead of us and the one coming behind us. The bridge was crowded!At the top, we crossed the middle girder that marked the highest point on the climb (134m / 440ft).
Now we were on the west side arch and made our way down. We had now arrived at the second set of ladders that will take us back under the bridge where we started. From here we detached from the tether and were able to walk freely back into the Bridge Climb building were we cleaned up our headphones, turned in our gear and received our free climb certificate.